NAPERVILLE – Naperville Central is fielding its most inexperienced team in years this fall.That, of course, hasn’t stopped opponents from bringing their best effort against the Redhawks, eager to knock one of the state’s elite teams down a peg or two.“You take that as a compliment, and we’ve got kids that have to understand that,” Naperville Central coach Troy Adams said. “We have a lot of players who (are still learning) the understanding of how to play, the intensity.“There are no off games on our schedule. There’s no time where you can go, ‘Hey, we’re going to roll and give 50 percent effort.’ All games are meaningful.”The Redhawks (3-2) have already lost as many games as they did all last season.The first loss, a 5-0 road drubbing by Morton, was no upset, considering Morton is one of the top contenders for the state title this fall.But Tuesday’s 2-1 home loss to Bartlett on the opening night of the Best of the West Tournament was a wakeup call that could prevent the Redhawks from reaching the tournament championship game for the first time in four years.So Thursday’s 4-0 win over Sandburg at Memorial Stadium was a much-needed pick-me-up for the Redhawks.Senior Christopher Schwaiger had a goal and an assist, while Jimmy Kalkofen, Kyle Forest and Neal Hasan also scored for Naperville Central, which must beat Waubonsie Valley and hope Bartlett loses to Sandburg on Saturday morning in order to play in Saturday’s6 p.m. title game.“We took a step back Tuesday,” Adams said. “We said we can’t continue to do this Jekyll and Hyde thing the whole year.“Our schedule is too hard, our sectional is too hard. We’ve got to play at a high rate every game.”The Redhawks did play at a high rate against Sandburg (1-2), at least in stretches.“I feel like we played a little hesitant, a little nervous on Tuesday, but today when we came on the field we knew if we had any chance to get to the final we’d have to win both of our next games,” Schwaiger said. “We said we’ve got to get back to the way we play soccer, so we came out and took care of business.”Schwaiger gave his team the lead when he scored on a penalty kick at the 30:43 mark of the first half, but it was the Eagles who arguably had the better of the play in the opening 40 minutes, earning a 5-3 edge in shots.

Naperville Central goalkeeper Joe Kallikadan came up with four saves, including diving stops on Ryan Frencl and Michael Dahlgren, to keep his team ahead.The second half was all Redhawks.While the hosts didn’t get a lot of shots, they were efficient, scoring on their first two attempts of the second half and 4-of-8 overall.More impressively, all three second-half strikes were the result of brilliant team play.“We set down five guidelines, and one of the guidelines was we need to be, ‘We, not I,’” Adams said. “We talked about you’ve got to believe in your teammates.“You’ve got to believe that when they get the ball they’re going to do certain things and you’ve got to bust it on the far side and be there. Two of our goals were somebody busting it to get to a spot and getting a goal. There were positives and negatives tonight, but that’s a positive to this game.”Schwaiger thought he would be the beneficiary of that but ended up getting the assist on Naperville Central’s second goal, which came with 34:46 to go in the second half.Midfielder Noah Canlas sprung him on a breakaway down the right wing, and Sandburg goalkeeper Derek McCurdy had no choice but to come out to challenge.Schwaiger chipped the ball over McCurdy’s head toward the goal, and Kalkofen outhustled a defender to the ball to tally his second goal of the season.“Noah is great in the midfield with his distribution, so I always know that he’ll find me,” Schwaiger said. “I made a run, he played me in behind and I saw the goalie was off his line.“I was actually trying to score. It was off the mark a little bit, but Jimmy was there to put it in, so I’ll take the assist.”Adams will take plays like that from Schwaiger, who is playing with an ankle injury that will require surgery.“When he is active and he is involved, he’s a very good player,” Adams said. “That’s what I’ve talked to Chris about is you’ve got to be 100 percent involved. You can’t take plays off.“We’re not the type of team that can have one of our players take a 10-minute stretch and not play. I thought he did a much better job of staying active, staying involved, looking to do what we want to do.”Junior Taha Din, one of several new starters, said it will take time for the Redhawks to reach their potential, but he’s confident they will figure it out.“We lost a lot of key players from last year, a lot of goal scorers and playmakers,” Din said. “We all just had to step up and we’ve all been working really hard.“If we have the right work ethic, I think we can beat any team in the state, to be honest. We do it in practice, a lot of running and fundamentals, and we just perfect everything, so when we come out to the game we execute and score goals.”That’s what the Redhawks did in the second half, and Din played a major role, assisting on the third goal of the game and triggering the play that led to the fourth.Din got his assist by sending a perfect diagonal ball from the left wing to the top of the Sandburg box, where Forest ran onto it and headed it past McCurdy just four minutes after Kalkofen’s strike.Then with 10:30 remaining, Din won another ball far out on the left wing and fed an entry pass into the left side of the box to Kalkofen, who battled with two defenders. Kalkofen eventually had the ball knocked away, but it went right to Hasan. He settled it and toe-poked an 8-yard shot past the outstretched glove of Sandburg backup keeper Ian Crain and off the inside of the right post to make it 4-0.

“We’ve been working a lot on that in practice,” Din said. “Coach Adams is always on us to put the ball where it needs to be and have the vision to get it off your foot fast. Because when you do that the game moves a lot faster and the defense can’t even touch you.”Speaking of defense, Naperville Central’s was in fine form, allowing just six shots, only one of which came after intermission.“I thought Frank DeStefano did an outstanding job in the back,” Adams said. “It was his first start. He’s a converted midfielder.“We don’t have a lot of backs, so we’ve been playing around with some guys in the back. He has made huge steps in terms of understanding how to play the position. He’s fast.”While the Redhawks might not be as talented as in recent years, Schwaiger said they have become fast friends.“I think what’s unique about our team is as close as we are on the field, we’re just as close off the field,” said Schwaiger, who intends to postpone surgery until after the season. “We’ve known each other for as long as we can remember.“We’re all really good friends, and I think that’s almost more important than having one or two or three all-state players that you have to rely on to score goals. Our first six goals were from six different people, so it’s good to have that depth from our bench.”Even though it likely won’t be linear, progress is expected, and the Redhawks intend to be peaking by the end of the regular season.“That’s the goal,” Schwaiger said. “We kind of have a motto: to always be taking steps forward. We thought Tuesday was a step back but today was a step forward, and we hope to keep going.”Starting lineupsNaperville CentralG Joe KallikadanD Frank DeStefanoD Jack EaganD Griffin GeiserD John RudolphM Noah CanlasM Jimmy KalkofenM Nick ZainF Christopher SchwaigerF Taha DinF Kyle ForestSandburgG Derek McCurdyD Ryan FrenclD Nicholas CalderonD Antonio RoselliM Daniel RohderM Dylan HansanM Michael MargasM Miguel VillanuevaM Marty ManzkeF Ryan KozlowskiF Michael DahlgrenMan of the Match: Christopher Schwaiger, F, Naperville Central